Protests by fruit pickers and farmers put spotlight on price of cheap food in UK

Julia Quencaño Casimiro and fellow migrant farm workers demonstrating today outside the Home Office. Photograph: Andy Hall/the Observer

This is a tale of two countrysides. One was featured prominently on Saturday by broadcasters as farmers held demonstrations throughout the UK against inheritance tax plans they believe will cripple family farms.

A smaller protest staged a day earlier outside the Home Office received almost no attention. A small band of fruit and vegetable pickers, mainly from Latin America, were highlighting their battle against what they call the exploitation of migrant workers.